Orlando in Review: Phyken Media

If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you will know that the Indie Van rolled over to Orlando to visit Phyken Media. Phyken Media are the makers of Wizard Ops and Wizard Ops Tactics. They also happen to be a rad group of people.

To get there, we followed the Polar Vortex from Louisiana to Orlando, chasing the lovely 17 degree (Fahrenheit) weather! (Living in Austin, I gave up my winter clothing long ago. I was ill-prepared for biting cold in every single city!) The effects of the Vortex were at their highest somewhere in a thoughtless moment when we got out of the van to order Sonic. For some reason we had opted not to stay in our warm van and use the drive through. Diego reminded us over and over that this was “the worst idea ever.”

We should have thought that one out, better. (Also, we should have put more thought into a Salsa Verde Burrito from a fast food place.)

The freezing cold couldn’t keep us from reaching Orlando and talking to the folks at Phyken Media, however. Everyone was super nice and it was clear they were hard-at-work polishing up the second chapter of Wizard Ops Tactics. We saw them putting the finishing touches upon explosions, UI elements, and AI. They were clearly trying to make the game as awesome as possible. Also, they had sweet puppets.

As much as we stalled, we still had to show them our game. Even though it was far from done, they managed to find some fun in unintended ways. They almost made it seem okay that our edges were rougher than sand paper. After some feedback on how to polish the game up and a trip to Tijuana Flats, we rode off into the sunset.

We came. We saw. We got a ticket for our expired parking meter.

As always, follow us on Twitter @binarysologames and look for #indievangamejam to catch us in other cities.